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My first contact happened on the web, with the few images announcing the project.
Following came the movie, mixing syncopated visuals to delicate music.
Finally, meeting the project’s instigators finished to spark my curiosity: I had to go visit this place.
The next week-end, I then found myself with a friend, climbing and wandering from one room to the other.
The second I stepped back outside, my eyes screwed up by the sun, i had only one idea in mind… to come back!
Flash forward to a week later, i was back inside, on my own this time.
I had a strong urge to expose film, silver film could only go well with such a spot, left silent for years and brought back to life thanks to the devotion of a small group of enthousiasts.
Immersed in this half light, cradled by the muffled sound of the freeways and the streets, the whole morning rushed by, without a notice.
This spot is beyond anything I’ve seen in the past, beyond industrial ruin, beyond graffiti, beyond contemporary art. For me, it’s one of the strongest artistic experience I’ve had these last ten years.
Here’s a selection of pictures from these two visits.

“For nearly a year, we secretly went painting there, creating abstract
art amongst the remains and fragments of lives the squatters were
forced to leave behind. Independently, without any type of funding or
sponsorship. We then asked 40 French Graffiti Artists, from the first
to the last generation of our movement, to discreetly join us in
creating ‘in situ’ murals and installations, some sort of weird and
poetic illegal ‘Mausoleum’ dedicated to Graffiti.”

We had first caught wind of the Mausolee project last summer while we were in France. Sowat had mentioned a monumental undertaking that he and Lek had been working on. We apologize for the late response on sharing this with you. There isn’t a bigger or intricate project I know about to date that is this large in scale and depth. What is more important to us is the projects mission statement, which we stand behind 100%. Lek and Sowat have been two of our favorite featured artists for some time. We feel both artists are helping define the next generation of graffiti, and where our culture might be headed. Progressive and raw, abstract in nature their work encapsulates the essence of what graffiti is about. It is great to see that through all the commercialization that is taking place in our art form that there are still artists who work for the art. Graffiti’s power lies in projects like these. Sometimes graffiti is best witnessed in cold dark corners of forgotten landscapes. We have always supported artists in galleries and museums, but it is also great to see real projects and installations taking place in natural environments such as this. In our eyes this project is unparalleled in its scope and importance in a time when our artform is in the limelight. This truly can be called a graffiti museum, one that can never be truly recreated indoors. That being said congratulations Lek, Sowat and all the artists that took their own paint and time to bring this to formation. I would share more pictures but we feel its better to watch the video and visit the site. We are truly in awe of this project and cant wait to see what comes next from these artists.

A few months ago, in between two trips around the globe, Butterfly from London made a quick stop in the Mausoleum. Here’s what she had to say and show about her visit…

Imagine an abandoned four storey supermarket in the North of Paris occupied by squatters, then deserted again. On August 12, 2010, French graffiti artists Lek (RAW crew) and Sowat (DMV) discovered the place much to their delight…

We were blown away by the Mausolee Project which transformed an abandoned supermarket in Paris into a venerable graffiti museum. Organized by Lek and Sowat, the project found a home on the website Graffuturism, which prides itself on championing graffiti writers who push the boundaries by challenging traditional notions of the artform. Lek does just that. In a recent profile Graffuturism did on Lek they wrote “His ability to push the medium of spray paint and not become attached to its tradition to the point where it hinders the progression is his best trait in my opinion. We expect a lot from Lek in the future.” Clearly they were correct.

Click through the pages below to see our Top 12 Lek Pieces and to understand Lek’s point of view in his own words…

On August 12, 2010, Lek and Sowat found an abandoned supermarket in the north of Paris. For a year, in secret, both artists continuously wandered in this 430,000 sq ft monument to paint murals and organize an illegal artistic residency, inviting forty-six French graffiti artists to collaborate, from the first to the last generation of the graffiti movement.

Together they built a Mausoleum, a temple dedicated to their disappearing underground culture, slowly being replaced by street art and its global pop aesthetics. This could be the most visually intense graffiti project to date. Sometimes site specific graffiti can only be appreciated in person, as a phenomenological experience. Decayed and hollowed out buildings allow for graffiti writers to flow their pieces through the unique composition of the layout like an art installation, this is usually something very hard to capture on camera. Sowat and Kan did an excellent job conveying the experience of exploring this massive urban ruin transformed into an underground graffiti museum. We have reported on how the The Underbelly Project worked toward similar goals, displaying urban art in a more natural habitat. What makes Mausolee different, is the fact that it emphasizes working only with ‘graffiti writers’ and not ‘street artists’. Mausolee shows the full potential graffiti writers have to change the perspective of free wall space.